This year’s DealBook Summit includes conversations with global leaders and influential figures from Wall Street, Silicon Valley and Hollywood. They have all been at the center of the news this year and will be at the center of some of the biggest events in the coming months.
Kamala Harris was elected Vice President of the United States in 2020 after serving as a Senator, Attorney General of California and District Attorney of San Francisco. Ms Harris is expected to play a crucial role in the 2024 presidential campaign. Her job will be to help win over voters who are concerned about President Biden’s age, pressured by inflation and worried about the administration’s policies, including strong support for Israel in its war against the Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Tsai Ing-wen has been President of Taiwan since 2016 after a career as a civil servant and law professor. Ms. Tsai has recalibrated relations with the United States and China as rising tensions between the world’s two most powerful countries have put Taiwan at the center of a geopolitical battle. She will step down as president in January, at the end of her second term.
Elon Musk oversees some of the world’s largest and most influential tech companies: Tesla, SpaceX, Starlink and .
Jamie Dimon has been chairman of JPMorgan Chase since 2006 and its chairman since 2007, making him one of Wall Street’s longest-serving bank executives. That year, he led efforts to negotiate a rescue deal for the regional banking crisis, culminating in JPMorgan’s acquisition of First Republic.
Jensen Huang founded Nvidia in 1993 and is president and CEO of the company. The Silicon Valley company was a pioneer in making chips for artificial intelligence applications like ChatGPT. This year it became the first publicly traded chipmaker to be valued at $1 trillion.
Bob Iger returned as Disney boss last year after stepping down from that position in 2020. Long one of the media industry’s most prominent executives, he led billion-dollar acquisitions of Fox, Marvel and Pixar that cemented Disney’s status as a Hollywood hit factory. But Mr. Iger now faces challenges at the box office, on major networks like ESPN and in streaming. He also faces close scrutiny from activist investors.
Lina Khan was sworn in two years ago as chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission, where she has earned a reputation as one of the most active antitrust regulators in recent years. She was an associate professor of law at Columbia Law School, but gained notoriety long before that when, as a law student, she wrote an article about the new antitrust threat posed by technology companies like Amazon that offer consumer services for free and instead profit from what data they use collect. As head of the FTC, Ms. Khan has tested her legal theories in a series of lawsuits, leading to accusations from business groups that she “radically deviated from the FTC’s mission.”
David Zaslav led Discovery’s acquisition of WarnerMedia and became chief executive of the new Warner Bros. Discovery company last year. The deal helped transform his modest cable television company into an empire that includes film and television studios Warner Bros., HBO and CNN. But his leadership of the media giant faces significant hurdles, including paying down billions of dollars in debt and navigating turmoil at major companies like CNN.
Jay Monahan had to deal with an existential threat as commissioner of the PGA Tour: LIV Golf. With the backing of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the emerging competitor began hosting tournaments last year. But in June, Mr Monahan struck a tentative deal to end the rivalry – and took a medical leave of absence days after the announcement rocked the sports world. This will be one of his first in-depth interviews since his return.
Representative Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from California, was speaker of the House from January to October, when he was unseated by far-right members of his own party – the first time the House has voted to remove its leader. Mr. McCarthy is increasingly out of step with parts of the Republican Party and must soon decide whether to run for re-election.
Shonda Rhimes is the CEO of Shondaland and the first woman to produce three television dramas – “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Private Practice” and “Scandal” – reaching the 100-episode milestone. In 2017, Ms. Rhimes left network television to produce streaming content exclusively for Netflix, and her work touched on important political issues, including abortion and gun laws.